Southern Section 3-A : Lompoc Overturns 6-0 Lead to Advance

Tuesday afternoon began with such promise for Sunny Hills High School. The Lancers scored five runs in the first inning and one more in the fifth to take a 6-0 lead over Lompoc at Brookhurst Park.

Sunny Hills pitcher Paul Abbott--not usually one to waste such support--was on the mound. Through four innings, Abbott had struck out six and had not allowed a hit. All of which had Sunny Hills followers looking toward Anaheim Stadium and Friday’s Southern Section 3-A championship game. Then came the fifth inning, and what started out so pleasant was somehow transformed into a horrible nightmare from which Abbott and Sunny Hills couldn’t seem to awaken to end. Before the inning ended, Lompoc sent 15 hitters to the plate, scored 10 runs, and forced Sunny Hills fans to begin making other plans for Friday night.

The abrupt turnaround led Lompoc to a 12-7 win and left Doug Elliott, Sunny Hills coach, wondering if all of it really happened. Five walks? A balk? A hit batter? Two throwing errors? Five hits? Ten runs, all coming with two outs? All in one inning?

“It just seemed to go on and on,” Elliott said. “We couldn’t get out of it.”

It began innocently enough. Abbott walked Steve Dupree to open the inning, then retired the next two hitters. That brought up leadoff hitter Guy Valenzona, who hit a ground ball in the hole between shortstop and third. Sunny Hills shortstop Mike Lutz backhanded the ball, but didn’t have a chance to throw out Valenzona. The no-hitter was no more, but that turned out to be the least of Abbott’s troubles.

He walked the next two hitters, then balked home a run. With runners at second and third, Elliott elected to intentionally walk cleanup hitter Pat Thompson. The move seemed logical, but backfired when Abbott walked Paul Bommersbach to force in the second run of the inning. Ball four would be the last pitch Abbott would throw for Sunny Hills. The last of many.

“We kind of thought that Abbott had thrown a lot for them all year long,” said Dan Bodary, Lompoc coach. “We had our hitters start taking a strike from the second inning on. We were just going to make him throw and hope he’d run out of gas.”

Abbott did, but Lompoc didn’t. Ron Osborne greeted Lancer reliever David Martinez with a two-run single to center. That brought up Dupree, who was in on this mess from the beginning. He singled to right, which is where Abbott went to recover from the carnage. Abbott fielded the ball and threw it over the head of Sunny Hills catcher Adrian Schicker and to the backstop.

A walk to Larry Jacinto prompted Elliott to make another pitching change. He brought in Brian Olynyk , who gave up a run-scoring single to Damon Scarsborough, hit Valenzona with a pitch, and yielded a two-run single by Jim Hall. Olynyk got Dale Craig to fly out to center, and the nightmare was finally over.

Lompoc erased any thoughts of a Lancer comeback with double plays to end both the fifth and sixth innings. Those came after Valenzona, the Braves’ second baseman, ended the fourth inning with an unassisted double play that was the defensive play of the game. Valenzona made a running, backhanded catch of a Schicker’s line drive, then dove on the second base bag to double up Russell Fredericks, who was on his way to third.

Schicker and Rod Turner had two hits and two RBIs for the Lancers, who finished 23-6. Sunny Hills had won only one playoff game before this season, but 1985 will be remembered for the way in ended.

“You can talk about what a great season it was, but I don’t think there’s one person on this ballclub who’s really satisfied,” Elliott said.

“We were up, 6-0. We had a chance. That’s what’s frustrating.”

Lompoc (23-5) will meet Rio Mesa (26-3) for the 3-A title Friday at Anaheim Stadium, beginning at 5 p.m.